B&C Sea Hydrogen Alliance
Introduction
The world is aiming to accelerate change towards low-carbon energy systems that enable robust economic development and limit the rise in global temperature to well below 1.5˚C. Providing universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy services by 2030 is, therefore, a key sustainable development goal. It means that rapid and deep reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are needed to avoid dangerous climate change, which will necessitate low-carbon transitions across the energy sector where the green hydrogen will play a key role.
In an integrated energy system, hydrogen can support decarbonization of transport, power generation, industry and building sectors while regions can attract billions of foreign direct investments, create millions of new jobs, sustainable circular economies and resilient societies. Doing so access to the clean energy can be guaranteed to mitigate the impact of the energy value chain on the environment and on the global climate in particular.
The biggest challenge is to set up a regional clean hydrogen value chain. This is a complex issue. Demand, production, supply, storage and related infrastructure will all have to develop and there are major dependencies between them and are significantly influenced by governments policy. As such, the Black Sea and Caspian Sea (B&C Sea) Hydrogen Alliance which includes Caucasus and Central Asia regions, aims and intends to steer and guide this whole process in facilitating the implementation of the regional hydrogen development vision. Besides a vast untapped onshore renewable energy potential in mentioned regions, technical offshore wind potential in the Black Sea can reach 435 GW, while in the Caspian Sea up to 845 GW can be developed.
The Alliance will address how to transform this unique opportunity into reality, through investments, regulation, local market creation, export, research, technology innovation and regional cooperation. By engaging all stakeholders and covering the whole value chain of the clean hydrogen and by mobilizing resources to develop an investment agenda to stimulate the big scale production and use of green and low-carbon hydrogen by developing concrete projects for the domestic use and export purposes.
This will create the base for the most cost-competitive clean h2 ecosystem in the regions, where hydrogen as the most abundant substance in the universe as never before creates a unique opportunity where the “last person” can now be the “first person” to be reached with innovative energy products and services. This is a true sustainable revolution in the worldwide energy systems.
The Alliance welcomes all stakeholders who want to engage and contribute to the deployment of renewable and low-carbon hydrogen covering whole value chain: clean hydrogen production; clean hydrogen storage, clean hydrogen transmission & distribution; clean hydrogen in industrial applications; clean hydrogen for mobility; clean hydrogen in the energy sector; and clean hydrogen for residential applications. As well as those who will use renewable and low-carbon hydrogen to decarbonize industrial processes and economic sectors as a whole.
B&C Sea Hydrogen Alliance will organize a Hydrogen Forum once a year for all participants of the Alliance to enhance collaboration, bring together the different stakeholders to maintain the dialogue on the regional level.
The key aim of the B&C Sea Hydrogen Alliance is to identify and build up a pipeline of viable local and regional investment projects along the hydrogen value chain, with a view to shift away from fossil fuels, create a clean hydrogen market contributing to create new jobs, sustainable economies, and resilient societies. Our mission is to extend cooperation from the regional to the global level by collaborating with already existing H2 Alliances in the different regions.
Members of the B&C Sea Hydrogen Alliance
